Mr. Peter Morrison asked the Secretary of State for Energy what is the percentage increase in the cost of electricity since 28th February 1974.

Mr. Eadie: I am informed by the Electricity Council that it is about 86 per cent. overall in England and Wales.

Mr. Morrison: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that that is a horrifying figure? Perhaps he will explain why the prices of the goods and services supplied by nationalised industries seem to rise much faster than the prices of those supplied by the private sector.

Yes, that figure is correct: under the benign state management of the national electricity company, over two years the price of electricity rose by 86%! Eighty-six percent!

As concern grows that the other five major energy companies are preparing to follow Scottish Power and announce big rises within weeks, the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, told the Observer that consumers should not accept the increases "lying down" but "hurt" their supplier by finding cheaper alternatives.

"Consumers don't have to take price increases lying down," he said. "If an energy company hits you with a price increase, you can hit them back where it hurts—by shopping around and voting with your feet."

Given that a great part of these price rises are caused by the fucking government—both the EU and our pretendy local government in Westminster—slapping taxes and alternative fuel contributions onto the energy companies, I think that Chris Huhne's witterings are somewhat cunting cheeky, frankly.

"Right now, only one in five people switch suppliers. I want to see more switching, more competition and more companies in the market," Huhne said. "The big six only have a few minnows snapping at them, who are kept artificially small. By scrapping red tape for small players they can become serious challengers and help keep bills down."

Yeah? And what will happen when those companies start getting big? We all know—you'll slap a massive fucking windfall tax on them, or just put more taxes onto their suppliers* so that the "minnows" cannot even compete on price.